I was offered a booth at Sierra College for their Culture Day (in California, USA) last week in order to put up pamphlets and photos of our doggies plus sell a few items to fundraise for Care For Dogs. I brought shirts, bumper stickers, and postcards, had flyers made, created a posterboard with pictures, and brought lots and lots of energy and enthusiasm to talk about our doggies! I had lots of students and teachers come to ask questions and share their own rescue stories (it always makes me happy to meet someone who adopted/rescued their dog!)

I got the ever curious questions regarding why we chose to set up a shelter in Thailand, whether or not Thais eat dogs, and whether we send dogs to the states to try to find homes for them here.

So… in case any readers have similar questions, I thought it might be important to answer those questions here as well.

One, we set up a shelter in Thailand primarily because there’s such a tremendous need for one. Although all countries have a need for shelters/spay campaigns/adoption programs, etc.

Thailand is one of the only countries whose overall human population really wanted to help reduce the stray/suffering dog population without resorting to eating dogs, but just didn’t have the funds/knowledge to go about doing so in a kind and loving manner.

So there was both a really desperate need for a shelter as well as a desire from the community to see such a program be put in place.

I often get asked whether Thais eat dogs, and I have to be honest when I say I’m torn as to what to answer. In general, Thais do not condone eating dog meat. Dogs are not sold openly on the marketplace to be butchered nor is dog consumption readily acceptable within the Thai community.

However, there are still dogs being eaten in Thailand, sometimes by immigrants, sometimes by Thais, and sometimes dogs are stolen and sold across the border to be consummed in another country.

Although many Thais are against eating dogs, most are not vocal against the practice so those who do it aren’t stopped.

Three, regarding sending dogs to other countries, although we support any adoption and will help owners with information regarding bringing their adopted dog back to their country, we do not send dogs to families overseas without first having met that family and without them having met the dog! Since dogs, just like humans, have very individualistic personalities, we want to make sure that when a family picks a dog, they are picking one with whom a friendship will flourish. And that simply doesn’t work as well if family and pet have not interacted

I’m glad to say that I was able to raise a bit of money to help the doggies and hope that the pamphlets, stories, and pictures, will set off sparks in people’s minds regarding doggy welfare around the world!

Amandine at Care For Dogs